Demographic

[ailbhe]

It's odd how many recently or hugely pregnant people I know, suddenly - I never did before I was pregnant myself. It's all a big conspiracy!

One by one, my family are asking me "What, you're not still breastfeeding her, are you? Why?" It's an effort to tell the truth - "Why not?" rather than come up with rational justifications along the lines of "WHO guidelines... NHS guidelines... The global average is over 3 years you know..." and, worst of all, "Because of her dairy intolerance." What am I doing, justifying myself like this? Feeding my baby is normal. Formula feeders don't have to suddenly justify why they haven't changed to something else at 9 months. Why is formula feeding more "grown up"? Why is breastfeeding only for young babies? What's wrong here?

Hi, choir.

Comments

Re: Demographic

[seren.livejournal.com]

not to mention 'child abuse', to quote one member of my baby group when another spoke of her friend who was still breastfeeding her 18 month old once a day *sigh*
Lucy is 7 months old and I haven't had any complaints about 'still' breastfeeding as yet. When she was 2 weeks old, though, DH's grandmother came to visit, asked "are you still feeding her?" and when I said yes, she said "How long will you do that for..3 months?" Errr..